


space, and time (infinity times infinity)

by BelaBellissima



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Cassandra Cain - Freeform, Cross-Posted on Twitter, F/F, Implied/Referenced Abortion, POV Multiple, Reference to Eating Disorders, Stephanie Brown - Freeform, Teen Pregnancy, Underage - Freeform, allison cosplays as, basically tw for their pasts, cosplay au, howl - Freeform, its very brief but uhhhh results in the previous tags, not between renee and allison though, renee cosplays as, sophie - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-27 14:42:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22208839
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BelaBellissima/pseuds/BelaBellissima
Summary: Allison and Renee growing up and using cosplay as an outlet.
Relationships: Allison Reynolds/Renee Walker (All For The Game)
Comments: 3
Kudos: 12





	space, and time (infinity times infinity)

**Author's Note:**

> yeah so im a nerd and i wanted a self-indulgent AU that merged my three loves: AFTG, DC comics, and lesbians.
> 
> title from Sun by Sleeping at Last

Natalie Shields first sees a comic book on a day she’s running to hide from a rival gang. She’s nine years old, and the comic shop door is open. She runs in, hiding behind a shelf just in time.

While she’s down, she sees a black figure with pointy ears on the cover of a book.

The title says Batman.

She picks it up.

Allison Reynolds first sees superheroes on her TV screen when she’s six. The nanny didn’t want to talk to her, so she turned on Saturday morning cartoons.

Allison watches as a man walks around a house that looks like hers, then goes out and fights crime in a cool costume.

She looks up Batman later that day.

Natalie relates to Jason Todd.

She’s read his introduction countless times, all versions of it. She’s like him, basically a street kid. He steals tires and sells them to gangs the way she runs messages and does things for the higher ups as well. Anything for a hot meal and a bed.

His abusive dad, his junkie mother. She wishes a rich hero would save her, but she knows better. That’s the difference between comics and real life – the impossible happens on the page. Real life doesn’t have miracles.

She thinks she could be good, if only given the chance.

And then – like magic.

Stephanie Walker waltzes into her life and adopts her.

She feels like Jason as his story comes full circle, only his death was literal.

Natalie Shields dies. Renee Walker is born.

Allison relates to Bruce Wayne.

Rich. No parents, really.

A drive to help those less fortunate than her, and the need to keep it secret. Whenever she leaves the house, she carries cash on her. She drops it on purpose anytime she walks by a homeless person. Her parents would yell at her if they saw.

She begins learning to sew, on a machine in her room. She thinks, “Bruce Wayne wears a superhero costume, but he also wears a costume in his real life. I’ll make both.” So she makes a crappy, uneven catsuit, because at this point in her life her parents have convinced her to stick to gender roles.

She thinks that she has to be Catwoman. Bruce Wayne is a guy. So is Robin. Selina Kyle it is. Besides, Selina is rich too. And maybe it comes from stealing or whatever, but Allison is old enough and aware enough to know that her family is rich because they practically rob their employees.

Allison attends her first convention at twelve. She doesn’t have many pictures taken of her, and she doesn’t really meet any new people, but she’s invisible to the public eye for the first time. She’s anonymous, not just the daughter of those rich hotel people. Its addicting. She starts working on a new suit as soon as she gets home, and over time she gets better and better and-

Renee Walker relates to Cassandra Cain.

She was a bad person trying desperately to be a good person. So is Renee.

They’ve both killed before, they’ve both been abused, they both were adopted by a parent who loves them and only wants them to be the best they can be.

Renee loves Stephanie Walker more than anything for introducing her Batgirl.

Besides, Cassandra is also Chinese-American. Renee has never seen a superhero like her before.

She cuts her hair short, but dies it white with rainbow streaks, because well. Cassandra is totally a lesbian no matter what DC says. So is Renee. It makes sense, and it reminds her that God loves her too.

The rainbow is a miracle.

Allison relates to Stephanie Brown. Her parents are abusive or barely there.

She sews her cloth armor in her bedroom after dark, terrified of her parents finding the frivolous costumes and throwing them out.

Teen mom, almost. She’s newly fourteen and at her birthday party. Most of the people here are her parent’s friends. She doesn’t really have any in-person friends herself. She’s talked on Instagram to other cosplayers, and her closest acquaintance so far is spiritedrenee, and they only talked a few times.

Her parents are ignoring her like usual to talk and gossip with their friends, and then suddenly _he’s_ there, and he’s much older, and she’ll realize later what happened, but in the moment, she feels seen. She lets him fuck her, because its nice to be wanted.

When she finds out she’s pregnant, it’s four weeks later. She’s at her grandfather’s house, spending the last month of summer there, and when she tells him, she starts to cry, and he shushes her and holds her close, telling her it will be okay.

He takes her to a Planned Parenthood and promises to never tell her parents. She’s relieved, and thankful, but still feels ashamed, so he takes her to get ice cream on the way home and spend a nice day in the park.

That’s where she sees it for the first time – Exy.

There’s two and a half weeks until she begins her freshman year of high school, and she practices every day. Her grandfather buys her a racket, another way of letting her know he loves her and won’t abandon her.

So, now Allison works out. She plays exy on her high school team, and she’s beaten up enough on the court, especially when she’s starving herself on her parent’s orders, to make it feel like she’s gone toe to toe with criminal baddies untrained every night.

She sews herself a Spoiler costume. She reads all the Stephanie Brown comics she can find. She falls in love with her Spoiler, her Robin, her Batgirl. She’s also recently discovered she’s bi, so she loves Stephanie/Cassandra.

Her junior year her parents disown her, only allowing her to remain at home out of hope that she’ll change her mind and follow the family business. All she wants to do is get out. She’s been hospitalized, she’s eating again, she will never go back.

They have an upcoming trip to Minneapolis for the opening of a new hotel however, and Allison manages to convince them to take her with them, saying she’ll learn about the hotel business on her own while her parents are in meetings. They agree, and fly her out on their jet after she finishes school Friday. She greets them Friday, but on Saturday, leaves the hotel, instead heading to GalaxyCon with her new Spoiler cosplay hidden in her backpack. She changes at the con, then sets out.

Renee is happy. Stephanie has helped her come so far from where she had been three years earlier, and saved enough money to allow both her and Renee to fly to Minneapolis for GalaxyCon. She loved that Renee was getting into a hobby, one them kept her happy and out of trouble, away from triggers and temptations.

Stephanie spends her time reading and exploring the city, but Renee spends every minute she can at the con in her Batgirl cosplay, buying art and attending panels, and getting her comics signed.

Allison is blown away by the con. It’s the most fun she’s had in quite a while. She’s walking through Artists Alley, when through crowds several aisles apart – they see each other.

“Batgirl!” Allison shouts.

“Spoiler!” Renee shouts back.

They snap photos and talk, and find themselves getting along like the best of friends.

Allison wants to post the photos on her private Instagram thisgallisonfire, the one that keeps her more famous name out of things. She’s an anonymous girl on there, known only in the small time cosplay community. She asks the Batgirl for her handle to tag her in the post, and nearly drops her phone in shock when the girl replies “spiritedrenee.”

“I’m thisgallisonfire!” Allison says, and Renee thinks its fate, a miracle or blessing from God showing her that she’s on the right path, that she’s redeemable.

When the day is over, Allison finally has a real friend.

Renee.

She also might have a small crush, but she’s only sixteen, and Renee is nineteen. Allison swore to herself years ago that she wouldn’t make that mistake again, and while three years might not be a lot in the future, it is right now. She’s going to protect herself, because her parents never will.

But a harmless crush? Sure. She smiles a lot whenever Renee posts a new picture, whether it be art or cosplay or something beautiful that Renee saw and wanted to share, or fixing her haircut with the rainbow tips and did that mean that Allison had a chance if they kept up their friendship for a couple more years? And then – Hunter Point Bears: 13. West Jackson Wolves: 17. A selfie of Renee of an Exy court, dressed in Goalkeeper gear, and Allison’s heart melts.

Fuck.

She’s in love.

Allison wants to reach out and talk to her some more, but she forgets as she finds herself swamped dealing with financial issues. She needs to go to college, but her parents refuse to pay for it and her grandfather can’t afford it.

Allison is about ready to just attend a community college because she can get a job to pay when David Wymack shows up in her life. He offers her a full ride, and Allison takes it.

Renee is waiting with Dan for her last teammates to arrive. Dan is mad because she grew up without money, is furious that someone rich is getting a full ride. Renee defends Allison, because even though they’ve never met, she knows everyone has a past.

Also Wymack told her about Allison being cut off. She knows Allison is just as much of a fox. She just can’t wait to meet her.

Heels click in the distance, and then-

Allison comes into view. Not a stranger, but the one she’s friends with.

“Oh! Hello.”

Allison freezes. “Renee? What are you doing here?”

Renee smiles. “Same as you, I imagine.”

Allison looks terrified, like a hurt animal being backed into a corner. Renee thinks about how careful Alison must have been to keep her anonymity on her Instagram, to just be normal. She hopes she can calm her down.

“Have you read the Rebirth Batman yet?” she asks, smiling a little when Allison’s shoulders begin to relax. “Cassandra and Stephanie find out they were Batgirls.”

Allison smiles. “Finally. They’re together again.”

And then she steps forward and hugs her oldest friend.

Four years later, they go to a con together. They’re not superheroes this time, having wanted something softer, something sweet. Something romantic. A couple-cosplay, because its only right to honor the thing that brought them together. Renee picks from one of her favorite movies.

Renee is in a sweet baby blue dress, white and rainbow hair down under the hat on her head. Allison holds her hand as they walk, her pink and grey checkered coat falling around her shoulders lightly. An attached cape of ink black feathers falls to the floor.

“What do you want to do first?” Allison asks.

“This,” Renee says, and then leans in to kiss her.

And Allison kisses back.

“Dork,” she laughs. Renee smiles, pulling Allison along after her into the exhibit hall.

Renee remembers seeing Allison for the first time years ago, purple cloak and mask hiding her face, hiding herself from the world. She thinks of herself at that time, wearing a mask as well, still working on accepting her past. She remembers when she though miracles were impossible.

Life, Renee thinks now, is like the comics after all.

**Author's Note:**

> originally posted on twitter! [X](https://twitter.com/Bela_Bellissima/status/1215910609520226304?s=20)
> 
> [Find me online!](https://linktr.ee/belabellissima)


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